Paducah romps past Ford & Sons 18-7

Cape Girardeau's Ford & Sons American Legion baseball team has seen much better days than Monday.

Ford & Sons got off to a slow start by committing three errors in the first inning and things never got much better as Paducah, Ky., romped 18-7 at Capaha Field. The game was stopped after seven innings by the 10-run rule.

Paducah improved to 11-2 while Cape fell to 6-7.

Cape manager Tom Reinagel was visibly upset after a performance that saw his team commit six errors, which accounted for 12 unearned runs, although Paducah did plenty of damage at the plate with 15 hits.

"We just totally stunk today," Reinagel said. "There was no desire to be here from 4 o'clock on."

Paducah has fielded a powerhouse Legion team for a long time and this season's squad again appears to be strong as three pitchers have signed with Division I programs, including one who is headed to Kentucky.

"Our pitching is solid," Paducah coach Greg Doss said. "We haven't been playing good defense, but we did tonight. And we've been hitting the ball, a lot better than I thought we would when the season started."

Tony Zacheretti limited Cape to five hits and three runs in six innings, with all the hits coming in the first two frames. He struck out 10 and walked two.

Ian Moore, who is headed to Murray State as a pitcher, did his damage with the bat Monday. Moore had four hits, including the game's only home run, and he drove in four runs.

Shane Kistner and Dustin Tatum each had two of Cape's eight hits. Kistner and Tyler Schlosser both had two RBIs.

John Thies (4-1) suffered his first loss of the year as he was hurt by bad defense and also was touched for 10 hits in 4 2/3 innings. Thies allowed 10 runs, only three of them earned.

Schlosser gave up two hits and five unearned runs in one inning. Chris Conrad allowed three hits and three earned runs in 1 1/3 innings.

Paducah grabbed a 5-0 first-inning lead despite having just one hit as the three Cape errors proved costly.

Cape pulled to within 5-3 in the second but Paducah scored the game's next 13 runs to blow things open.

Ford & Sons will have a District 14 makeup game Thursday when Stoddard County visits Capaha Field at 6:30 p.m.